What about you short form

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Level: beginner Short answers • We often use short forms to first word of the A: Can you come round tomorrow? B: Yes, I can. / No, I can't. A: Have you seen Jack lately? B: Yes, I have. / No, I haven't. A: Do you like living here? B: Yes, I do. / No, I don't. Sometimes we change the verb: A: Will you come to the party? B: Yes, we might. A: Do you think they might come? B: Yes, I think they will. • We often use verbs like think, suppose, expect and hope to answer questions. When the answer is positive, we add so: A: Can you come tomorrow? B: I hope so. A: Will they be at home? B: I expect so. When the answer is don’t and so: A: Is Amsterdam the capital of the Netherlands? B: I don't think so. but with hope we use not: A: Do you think it's going to rain? B: I hope not. • We often use adverbials of like perhaps, probably, possibly, maybe, definitely and certainly as short answers: A: Do you think it's going to rain? B: Yes, possibly. A: Can you come round tomorrow? B: Definitely! When the answer is negative, we put not after the adverbial: A: Do you think it's going to rain? B: Probably not. A: Can you come round tomorrow? B: Maybe not. Short answers Agreeing and disagreeing • We can use short forms to agree or disagree with what someone says. Usually we repeat the first word of the verb phrase: A: It' s a lovely day. B: Yes, it is. A: I think they might have missed their train. B: Yes, I think they might. A: The children will be coming to see us next week. B: No, they won't....

There is some difference in usage between If you are planning something with a friend and you want to raise some potential problem, you would only use what about- effectively as a short form for what shall we do about.... If you want to suggest a new idea or a possible solution to a problem, you can use either what about or how about. Person A: How about/what about going sailing tomorrow! - suggestion Person B: Nice idea, but what about the kids? - potential problem Person A: Could we get somebody to baby sit? Person B: How about/what about your neighbour's daughter? - suggested solution Looking at your sentences: what about/how about her? - if she's a suggestion or a solution what about her? - if she's a potential problem. . What about/how about playing cards? - playing cards is a suggestion It sounds good in theory, but in practice I don't buy the idea that What about X? is more appropriate than How about X? if X is a problem, rather than a suggestion/solution. Google Books claims 136,000 instances of How about the cost, but only 19,100 What about the cost, and I'd say cost is always a problem, never a solution. Very strange. Being British myself, I suppose I must have a BrE perspective too, but I don't think the lack of BrE how about the cost in your NGram necessarily implies any US/UK usage split (there are actually only 32 instances in total). Looking at my first comment again, I can see it might be taken as implying I thought the opposite distinction applied, but act...